Why Raising The Debt Ceiling Matters to Democrats

I was reminded in an article by Larry Kudlow last week why I don't like the Ryan "Roadmap." Though contrasting the Ryan budget against the Obama budget, a graph showed both plans increasing federal spending significantly over the next decade. Establishment Republicans, like Boehner, McConnell and Ryan are welfare state managers, who don't necessarily mind the growth and influence of government, provided that they are in control.

In recent debt ceiling negotiations, with a new twist on an old class warfare tactic, Obama has characterized the GOP position as protecting the interests of "corporate jet[s] (owners)." I'm not sure just how many susceptible to this envy laced rhetoric understand how many mechanics, pilots, support staff, suppliers supported by the industry are not the despised "millionaires and billionaires" Democrats love to hate. If the corporate jet owners die off, like the pigs they are, who will employ the maintenance staff, suppliers, support staff? They too will get 99 weeks of unemployment and then step out into the Obama economic recovery.

Notwithstanding that Senator Obama decried raising the debt ceiling as a failure of leadership before voting against it, there are two fundamental reasons why Democrats need to raise the credit limit: all of their economic arguments fall away if spending is actually cut (not the Washington game of decreases in the rate of spending) especially when the economy improves in no small measure as a result of cuts and more urgently for them, their raison d'etre is the unabated growth and influence of government. They are there to protect, far and away the largest industry in America; government and any that feed at its trough. Without this predicate, they cannot win election.


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